Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 222

“Ughhhhh!!!”

The 99,000 seats of Camp Nou echoed with the roar of the crowd, but the players clashing desperately on the field no longer heard the shouts.

“Nicky, on the left!”

“Got it!”

After the equalizer, the game flowed into a completely open state.

With no chance for the managers to deploy sophisticated tactics, the players on both teams were playing the game in the way most familiar to them.

Barcelona with possession and pass-based smooth soccer.

Burnley with intense soccer based on pressure and counterattacks.

And the goddess of Camp Nou betrayed the home team and raised the hand of the away team.

Thwack!

Just as Barcelona’s young midfielder Gavi thought Burnley’s captain, Nicholas Seiwald, who was competing with him, was moving slightly to the right, he was suddenly rammed by vice-captain Tomaso Pobega, who came crashing in from the left. Gavi was pushed back a long way before collapsing on the field.

“Boo! Boo! Boo!!!”

The home fans’ boos were fierce, but the referee pointed both arms forward and shouted firmly.

“Play on!”

Just before ramming into the opponent, Tomaso Pobega’s right foot had flicked the ball away first.

That meant it was a normal ball contest.

“Boo! Boo! Boo!!!”

The home fans were booing the opposing team’s players and even the referee for the unfavorable decision, but Nicholas Seiwald, who received the ball stolen by Tomaso Pobega, grinned.

“You have to stop him!”

Before Ronald Araújo, who was directing the defense, could shout, Barcelona’s veteran right-back Sergi Roberto and defensive midfielder Nico Gonzalez rushed towards Nicholas Seiwald at the same time.

You can’t take the ball away from that monster with just one person.

He had explained it to his teammates several times before the game started, but Nico Gonzalez’s advice, which the Barcelona players, slightly intoxicated by their first-leg victory, had listened to with one ear and let out the other, was being proven in the worst way throughout the second half.

“Oh, really?”

Nicholas Seiwald grinned, moved the ball to his left foot, leaned his upper body, and strongly pushed away Sergi Roberto, who was trying to break through from the right, with his right shoulder, sending him flying.

The veteran defender flew away with a look of disbelief and the momentum he had.

On the other hand, Nico Gonzalez….

Thwack!

He simply lifted his body slightly into the air and rammed into his former teammate and opposing team captain.

Of course, Nicholas Seiwald, who was already prepared, maintained his posture without being fazed.

“Nico, you can’t take the ball from me with that.”

“Ah, damn… seriously…!”

Nico Gonzalez cursed and desperately stretched out his leg, but Nicholas Seiwald, who had already moved the ball to his left foot with plenty of room, pushed his former teammate away with his forearm and lightly passed the ball to the back.

“Damn it!!”

As Nico Gonzalez cursed, Christian Medina, who had already rushed up from behind, kicked the ball away.

The ball, which curved gracefully to the right, flew fiercely towards Barcelona’s left corner flag.

As Nico Gonzalez turned his head with a desperate expression, Christian Medina greeted him.

“Hi, Nico?”

“Damn it!!”

Christian Medina shrugged as he watched his former teammate, cursing, turn around and run back into the penalty box to support the defense.

“Nico must be busy.”

“I guess so.”

Sharing a grin, Nicholas Seiwald followed Nico Gonzalez into Barcelona’s penalty box, while Christian Medina moved towards Burnley’s defense to cut off the counterattack.

***

“Vini!!”

Hearing the shout from behind, Barcelona’s veteran left-back Jordi Alba turned around and cursed.

“Ah, damn it!”

It was a trick.

Burnley’s right-back Oscar Mingueza was smiling and waving at him from a position where he could never receive the ball, while Emanuel Vignato, who had leisurely occupied the space Jordi Alba had vacated, continued his sprint towards the ball flying towards the corner flag.

As the veteran defender watched with a hollow expression, the young Italian attacker leisurely stopped the ball when he reached the corner flag, even taking the time to look around before starting to sprint fiercely along the goal line.

The goal was Barcelona’s goal.

“Stop him!!”

“Support him!”

As Barcelona’s goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen gave firm instructions, Barcelona’s center-back Jules Koundé, who was checking Burnley’s center forward Lorenzo Lucca in the center of the penalty box, abandoned him and ran towards Emanuel Vignato.

Barcelona’s left-back Jordi Alba, who had been wearing a dazed expression, also regained his senses and started running, but it was already too late, even without considering his speed, which was long past his prime.

Emanuel Vignato, who had penetrated into the penalty box along the goal line on his right, grinned at Barcelona’s center-back blocking his path and raised his right hand, pointing to the goal.

“Huh?!”

Jules Koundé, who inadvertently glanced over his left shoulder, realized his mistake and turned his head back towards the opponent in front of him, but it was too late.

Emanuel Vignato, who had shaken the opposing defender with a simple trick, had already lightly pushed the ball with his left foot towards the center of Barcelona’s penalty box.

Following the ball passing to his right, Jules Koundé’s vision caught Burnley’s center forward Lorenzo Lucca and his center-back partner Ronald Araújo running towards the ball sliding across the grass.

“Ah, no!!”

Ronald Araújo desperately stretched out his foot, but Lorenzo Lucca, who lightly pushed away the opposing defender using his long arms as much as his height, unleashed a right-footed shot with the momentum he had.

“Ugh?!”

As goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen was startled by the ball whizzing past his face at cannonball speed, the ball flew straight into the net.

“Ughhhhh!!”

Not only Lorenzo Lucca, who scored the shot, but also Emanuel Vignato, who provided the assist, Jamal Lewis and Nicholas Seiwald, who were moving on the opposite side and drawing the attention of Barcelona’s defense, and the Burnley players who were moving from the midfield and defense to join the attack or support the defense, all raised their arms at the same time.

89th minute of the second half.

Burnley had secured a ticket to the UEFA Champions League final, which everyone had said was impossible.

***

“We are Burnley!”

“Super Burnley!”

“We are Burnley!”

“From the Moor!”

“Led by the man!”

“From the east!”

“Super Burnley!”

“Super Kim!”

As the home fans, who had remained in the stadium until the end with a glimmer of hope, left Camp Nou unable to hide their dismay, the Burnley fans, filled with elation, waved large flags fiercely in one corner, reveling in the joy of their come-from-behind victory.

“Super Burnley!”

“Super Kim!”

“Super Burnley!”

“Super Kim!”

As the fans’ fierce shouts echoed, Helena, who had come down to the field and was in Hyungmin’s arms, looked up and shouted.

“Go say hello to the fans!”

“Oh, okay.”

Most of the players had already gone to the stands where the Burnley away fans were gathered to greet them, but when their young manager appeared, the fans cheered even more fiercely, beating drums.

“Kim! Go all the way!!”

“Win!! Win!! Win!! Win!!”

“Burnley will win!!!”

Amid the mixed shouts and slogans that were hard to understand properly, Hyungmin gave a slightly embarrassed smile and waved to the fans.

One of the fans, filled with joy, shouted towards the greeting manager and players.

“Impossible? That’s nothing…!!!”

***

“Oh, this is impossible.”

Taejin stated leisurely, half-collapsed on the table and looking at the standings.

The afternoon after the dramatic victory against Barcelona.

After finishing the recovery training for the squad, who were worn out from tension and fatigue, although they had hidden it well, the manager and coaching staff gathered in the first team meeting room with equally tired expressions.

Tonight, Liverpool will play Real Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final.

The first leg was a dramatic 2-2 draw at Anfield [Liverpool’s home stadium].

Liverpool, who had taken the lead at home with consecutive goals from Mohamed Salah and Darwin Núñez in the first half, had to accept a painful result of a draw in the second half due to Karim Adeyemi’s outstanding performance, scoring two goals alone.

The young ace of the German national team, who has scored 15 goals in the Champions League this season alone, is challenging Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 17 goals, the most goals in a single Champions League season.

Although they are certain to finish second in La Liga [the Spanish top division league], behind Barcelona, Real Madrid, who are determined to lift the Champions League trophy in manager Carlo Ancelotti’s farewell season, will be welcoming Liverpool to the Santiago Bernabéu [Real Madrid’s home stadium].

But what Taejin was looking at was not the Champions League, where Burnley had already booked their place in the final, but the Premier League standings.

“Can Manchester United trip up Liverpool?”

“Hmm….”

Hyungmin and the rest of the coaching staff were silent at Taejin’s question.

The club’s management had come to their senses, declaring this season as a rebuilding season and giving Simone Inzaghi more time by keeping him in charge, but well.

Chelsea, Tottenham, and Newcastle, who have joined the ranks of emerging powerhouses, are engaged in a fierce battle for 4th place, while they are far behind Liverpool, who are in 7th place.

That’s also a ranking they barely managed to achieve while going back and forth with Arsenal, who were fierce rivals in the title race during the Sir Alex Ferguson era.

“Jesse swore so much that he would somehow hold onto Liverpool… tsk.”

Hyungmin clicked his tongue regretfully.

He had sworn to Hyungmin and Carolina that he would get at least a draw against Liverpool, who were continuing their run towards a Premier League and Champions League double for the second season in a row, but the result was a 3-1 defeat.

Considering that the 1 goal Leeds scored was also a consolation goal that came after the 80th minute, it was not a very helpful result.

With 36 rounds of the Premier League completed, Burnley has 93 points with 31 wins and 5 losses.

Liverpool has 96 points with 31 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses.

The points Burnley lost due to the 5-game losing streak at the beginning of the season were regrettable.

“The goal difference is… um… I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Taejin muttered, looking at the standings.

“Liverpool has scored about 20 more goals than us….”

“…Are you assuming that we can win against Liverpool in the final game?”

Carolina retorted as if dumbfounded.

“This season, we have a record of 1 win and 4 losses against Liverpool!”

“But the 1 win was the most recent game!”

Taejin retorted at Carolina’s point.

“We’re getting better too!”

“Okay, everyone….”

In a situation where a fight seemed about to break out, Hyungmin raised both hands to calm the two down.

“Let’s not worry about what they’re going to do, and let’s do what we can do. Okay?”

“Oh, um….”

The two sat back down, looking slightly embarrassed.

As the end of the season approached, it would be a lie to say that everyone wasn’t nervous.

Burnley has 3 games left.

Each game is a thrilling situation that can determine the outcome of the entire season.

“We just have to do our best in the Premier League. You know?”

Burnley’s next Premier League opponent is Norwich.

Liverpool’s next Premier League opponent is Manchester United.

Burnley has a relatively easier schedule, but even considering the recent record and momentum, it’s hard to imagine Liverpool losing to Manchester United.

If the top 1st and 2nd place teams in the league enter the final game against each other, Liverpool can secure the title unless they lose to Burnley by more than 20 goals.

“Let’s just focus on the Champions League, where we can lift the trophy if we do well.”

Norwich will be easy for the kids to handle, right?